Abstract

Tunable, high precision gamma-ray sources are under development to enable nuclear photonics, an emerging field of research. This paper focuses on the technological and theoretical challenges related to precision Compton scatteringgamma-ray sources. In this scheme, incident laser photons are scattered and Doppler upshifted by a high brightness electron beam to generate tunable and highly collimated gamma-ray pulses. The electron and laser beam parameters can be optimized to achieve the spectral brightness and narrow bandwidth required by nuclear photonics applications. A description of the design of the next generation precision gamma-ray source currently under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is presented, along with the underlying motivations. Within this context, high-gradient X-band technology, used in conjunction with fiber-based photocathode drive laser and diode pumped solid-state interaction laser technologies, will be shown to offer optimal performance for high gamma-ray spectral flux, narrow bandwidth applications.

Received 23 November 2011Accepted 20 January 2012Published online 30 March 2012Corrected 04 April 2012

Acknowledgments:

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344. We also acknowledge support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at LLNL under tracking code 12-ERD-057.